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Paper short abstract:

We examine the life of data on the effectiveness of treatments for hypertension, in particular how racialized data circulates internationally. The paper explores how data that is encoded by national-ethnic labels can be decoded and re-labeled, giving it a new life abroad.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper we examine the life of data on the effectiveness of treatments for hypertension, in particular how racialized data circulates internationally. The use of racialized categories in biomedical research and practice is controversial for a variety of social and scientific reasons, but it continues nonetheless. We will reflect on the portability of racially categorized data across national borders and the 'work' and logics that are necessary to enable the data to have life beyond the land of its birth. Our empirical work has focused on prescribing guidelines for hypertension in England and Wales and the data that underpins the racialized treatment pathways they recommended. We were interested to understand the controversies that might surround the production and use of prescribing guidance that required practitioners to make judgments about a patient's race/ethnicity. We undertook semi-structured interviews with experts involved in guideline development, and we traced a variety of documentary sources, including the published clinical trials data that was cited as evidence in the guidelines. One debate that emerged related to using clinical trials data that predominantly came from 'African Americans' to guide prescribing for 'Black British' patients. The paper explores how data that is encoded by national-ethnic labels can be decoded and re-labeled, giving it a new life abroad.